Spending time on my grandparents farm was a delight for myself and my sibling and cousins. One years all the kids lined up in front of the crisp white fence that kept the hogs penned in, the tallest first and down the line to the smallest. I chose the first five in line to paint. Our mothers made most of our dresses and when I reached that point in my life, I too utilized some of those same fabrics passes down to me . Serendipitously, I still had some of the exact fabrics from those very dresses along with some calico’s that I had used for my own daughters dresses.

So to create this piece, I started by sewing a canvas surface together like a quilt top, and stretching that on to canvas stretcher bars. The prints in the clothing in the image are actually the gingham fabric pieces sew into those strategic section of the entire stretched canvas. Once that was accomplished, clear gesso was applied, and the painting commenced. When finished, you can hold the painting up to a window or light and the surface of the unpainted fabric clothes light up!